This composite image captured W51, a stunning giant molecular cloud just 17,000 light years away from Earth. The extremely dense mix of hydrogen molecules and helium atoms make it a hotbed for star and planet formation — during the Chandra telescope’s 20-hour exposure, over 600 young stars were spotted as well as interstellar gas with temperatures over 100 million degrees.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this fascinating enhanced image of exposed bedrock of an ejecta blanket in the Mare Serpentis region of Mars. Ejecta is material forced or thrown out from an eruption or some sort of impact. This ejecta is possibly from two unnamed craters, revealing previously unseen subsurface.

The Juno spacecraft made a close sweep ever over Jupiter’s great red spot, soaring just 5,600 miles above the raging storm. NASA invited citizens to edit the raw images, like this one by Gerald Eichstädt.

NGC 2500 is a barred spiral galaxy some 30 million light-years away in the Lynx constellation, characterized by its spindly arms swirling out from the bright core. About two-thirds of spiral galaxies have bars, including the Milky Way, acting as luminous nurseries for young stars.

Saturn’s moon Epimetheus gets a close-up with the highest resolution photo ever taken by the Cassini spacecraft. The new image shows the moon’s surface mottled with craters, which can't heal because the moon is too small to be geologically active.

Space Photos of the Week: A Giant Molecular Cloud and All Its Star Babies

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Space Photos of the Week: A Giant Molecular Cloud and All Its Star Babies

This composite image captured W51, a stunning giant molecular cloud just 17,000 light years away from Earth. The extremely dense mix of hydrogen molecules and helium atoms make it a hotbed for star and planet formation — during the Chandra telescope’s 20-hour exposure, over 600 young stars were spotted as well as interstellar gas with temperatures over 100 million degrees.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this fascinating enhanced image of exposed bedrock of an ejecta blanket in the Mare Serpentis region of Mars. Ejecta is material forced or thrown out from an eruption or some sort of impact. This ejecta is possibly from two unnamed craters, revealing previously unseen subsurface.

The Juno spacecraft made a close sweep ever over Jupiter’s great red spot, soaring just 5,600 miles above the raging storm. NASA invited citizens to edit the raw images, like this one by Gerald Eichstädt.

NGC 2500 is a barred spiral galaxy some 30 million light-years away in the Lynx constellation, characterized by its spindly arms swirling out from the bright core. About two-thirds of spiral galaxies have bars, including the Milky Way, acting as luminous nurseries for young stars.

Saturn’s moon Epimetheus gets a close-up with the highest resolution photo ever taken by the Cassini spacecraft. The new image shows the moon’s surface mottled with craters, which can't heal because the moon is too small to be geologically active.

There are approximately 100 billion stars in the Milky Way — each one a massive ball of hydrogen and helium burning until it eventually becomes a white dwarf or explodes in a supernova. It's stunning to behold, but where stars begin are just as beautiful.

This week, NASA captured not one but two celestial nurseries brimming with star formation. The Chandra and Hubble telescopes photographed a glorious giant molecular cloud W51, only 17,000 light years away from Earth. Its dense mix of hydrogen molecules and helium atoms constantly produce stars and planets. In a 20-second exposure, Chandra captured over 600 young stars glittering in the darkness.

Hubble wasn't finished star-hunting. It snapped an image of NGC 2500, a barred spiral galaxy 30 million light years away in the Lynx constellation. You can see NGC 2500's classic spindly arms spinning out from the core, glowing with newly born stars.

The rest of the universe offered up some stiff competition for best photo however — NASA's Juno spacecraft released images from a flyby over Jupiter's great red spot, allowing for an even closer inspection of the raging red storm and clouds churning on the planet's surface. And the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped a color-enhanced shot of the planet's fascinating surface.